15 FEARED DEAD IN FIERY CRASH
2 Homes Razed By Falling F4D Near Airbase
By Ken Burton
Fifteen persons were believed killed last night and at least a dozen injured when a U.S. Air Force F4D jet crashed into the rear of a Food Giant store at the Cactus Shopping Center at E. 29th St., and S. Alvernon Way.
Capt. Ellis Franklin of the Tucson Fire Dept. said at press time this morning that he feared the death toll might reach 15.
Eight of the deaths were confirmed as still more bodies were being removed from the gutted store and homes to the rear of the market.
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At least two houses to the rear of the shopping center complex were also destroyed as a fireball of JP-4 aviation fuel engulfed the area, creating a holocaust.
Air Force officers said the two-man crew, Flight Lt. Jack R. Hamilton of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), the pilot, and U.S. Capt. Gary L. Hughes, the navigator, were able to parachute from the plane before it crashed.
Tim Oned, of 3810 E. 32nd St., was standing on S. Winstel Ave. when the plane hit the ground shortly after 5:30 p.m.
"I saw two planes heading north above me," said Oned. "They were flying side-by-side, when two objects shot out of the eastern aircraft . . . I realized later these were parachutes."
Witnesses, including Oned, said the aircraft then turned on its side and descended upside down. Oned said when it hit, "It exploded like a bomb you see on television."
Another witness, 15-year-old Roswell Burk, of 1802 S. Baxter Pl., said he was just blocks away from the supermarket when he saw the jet approaching.
"When the plane came over, it tipped a little and it looked like a wing caught on one wall ─ and it just blew up," Burk said, explaining how the craft slammed into an alley directly behind the store.
The plane was loaded with more than 16,000 pounds of volatile JP-4 aviation fuel, which it had taken on prior to leaving Davis Monthan AFB. The plane was based at Nellis AFB, Nev.
The fuel exploded across houses and ripped a fiery path through the grocery store, which was dotted with holiday shoppers and employes.
Ernest Sanchez, a Tucson Gas & Electric Co. employe who was driving by the store when the crash occurred, stopped his car and ran inside to help men, women and children escape.
Reports indicated that between 20 and 30 persons escaped before the fire completely engulfed the store's inside.
Aby Mogy, a self-employed truck driver who runs Mogy's Towing Service, was helping a stranded motorist some 300 yards from the supermarket when he saw the plane fall.
Mogy said he heard "a thud," saw "not more than 20 people" run out, and immediately got on his two-way radio in his wrecker and called for the fire department. He was credited with the first alarm.
More than 85 city firemen ─ 50 regulars, plus 35 off-duty men called back to work ─ responded to the three separate alarms that send a total of 10 pieces of fire and rescue equipment to the tragedy.
Firefighting teams also rushed to the blaze from Davis-Monthan and Air National Guard headquarters. D-M also sent several ambulances and teams of medics.
Some 100 city policemen and other officers from South Tucson, the Arizona Highway Patrol, the Pima County Sheriff's Office, plus Civil Defense teams, the Sheriff's Search & Rescue Unit and Red Cross ─ all rushed to the crash site.
"We've got every law enforcement and rescue agency in the city and county out here fighting this thing," said one city patrolman. "I don't think we've missed anyone."
